Distribution of microbial populations and their relationship with environmental variables in the North Yellow Sea, China

In order to understand the large-scale spatial distribution characteristics of picoplankton, nanophytoplankton and virioplankton and their relationship with environmental variables in coastal and offshore waters, flow cytometry (FCM) was used to analyze microbial abundance of samples collected in summer from four depths at 36 stations in the North Yellow Sea (NYS). The data revealed spatial heterogeneity in microbial populations in the offshore and near-shore waters of the NYS during the summer. For the surface layer, picoeukaryotes were abundant in the near-shore waters, Synechococcus was abundant in the offshore areas, and bacterial and viral abundances were high in the near-shore waters around the Liaodong peninsula. In the near-shore waters, no significant vertical variation of picophytoplankton (0.2–2μm) abundance was found. However, the nanophytoplankton abundance was higher in the upper layers (from the surface to 10 m depth) than in the bottom layer. For the offshore waters, both pico- and nanophytoplankton (2–20μm) abundance decreased sharply with depth in the North Yellow Sea Cold Water Mass (NYSCWM). But, for the vertical distribution of virus and bacteria abundance, no significant variation was observed in both near-shore and offshore waters. Autotrophic microbes were more sensitive to environmental change than heterotrophic microbes and viruses. Viruses showed a positive correlation with bacterial abundance, suggesting that the bacteriophage might be prominent for virioplankton (about 0.45μm) in summer in the NYS and that viral abundance might play an important role in microbial loop functions.